RUMOUR - Lego Batman coming to iPhone?

Rules of World-O-Stuff:

1 - Never comment on rumours.
2 - Never admit that you'd want a game on your very serious iPhone.
3 - Never admit to wanting anything Lego-y when you're over 12 years old.

So, anyhoo...

Pocket Gamer has printed a rumour of a version of Lego Batman that could be coming to an iPhone near you soon. As rumours go, it's quite lame - no source, no idea who's making it, no nothing. Other than an estimated ETA of October 2008.

True or not? Who knows - but it's a great idea. Clearly iPhone gaming's only starting to find its feet but the innovative control mechanism puts it potentially in the same bracket as the Nintendo Wii when it comes to the casual gamer. So, if you're going to make Lego Batman (whoever you are!) make sure you don't just port - make it truly iPhone and make the most of the accelerometer. And don't hang about!

SCAMOLA 3 - Time for a list of shame?

...and so they keep on coming. The form is familiar but we have a new company involved now...

Subject: Notice Protect--internet intellectual property safeguard

Dear Manager
We Shanghai JinYue Network Technology Co.,Ltd, is an approved domain name Register Organization by China Internet Network.
On Apr.25st 2007, We formally received an application,One company who is called Konderl Holdings Limited want to register "*************" name as domain name and Internet Brand. Now,we are dealing with it, In order to reduce unnecessary conflict between domain name and company's brand name, we have something need to confirm with your company during checking period. if there is any question,pls let the people(Manager) who is responsible for the brand contact me ASAP. It is hereby inform you.Thank you.

Best regards,

Official Organization of China Internet
Shanghai JinYue Network Technology Co.,Ltd
Person in charge : sea
Tel:+(86)21-6427 1113
Fax:+(86)21-6427 1117
Email: sea@domaingov.cn

Bigpockets - how to do customer service properly

Last week, I ordered some crap from bigpockets.co.uk

Those of you familiar with Bigpockets will know that they often sell crap. Previous their £1.99 'Bag O Crap' has been a best seller and their new 'Random Crap' at 99p was also incredibly popular.

So popular, in fact, that their systems got a bit overwhelmed. Ordered on Tuesday, my crap did not arrive until the following Tuesday - despite having paid almost £6 in postage to have CityLink deliver.

Now, I am all for putting the blame for this at the feet of CityLink who, in my experience, are pretty uniformly dreadful as couriers go. But this time, it seems that some of the blame at least needs to go to Bigpockets, who were simply overwhelmed.

So I complained - and even before my order arrived, I had had my postage refunded and a full apology. I know some others had the same.

Brilliant. Why can't more companies just fess and say sorry when something's gone wrong? What's the big problem? Nobody expects people to be superhuman - things go wrong from time to time. So what? Just have the guts to say sorry!

Top marks to Bigpockets and Oli in particular.

And for the record, my order was for three pieces of crap and I got:

1 - a Dora the Explorer V-Tech game.
2 - a set of black metal curtain hold backs.
3 - a very heavy, solid wood cd rack.

Well worth £2.98! In addition, I had a set of 40 CD cases (8p - for 40 not each!) and a 512mb Sony Memory Stick Pro for 50p.

So, it was already cheap! But seriously, I know of a few companies that could really take a leaf out of Bigpockets' customer service book. Having said that, things might get better generally if they used someone other than CityLink. Just a thought.

SCAMOLA 2 - Another domain registration rip off

Here is another from the 'conflicting domain registration' stable...

Dear Manager

We are the ShanghHai LongYu Information Technology Co.Ltd.which is a professional domain name registration and service company in China.On,10th Sept.,our company receive the DiLong International Ltd company's application that they want to register the "*************" as their Internet Brand and CC domain name,but after our confirmation,we found this name will conflict with your company's name, so we send you email and want to confirm with you whether you have authorized the DiLong International company to register. According to the Internet domain name register principle that the domain name is "openly registration" and "first register,first obtain". We need to get your company's confirmation within the following 5 days.For any question, please let your company's charger contact us in time.Thanks! Looking forward to hearing from you .

Yours sincerely Bray

Bray Wu
Chinese Internet Service company:
ShanghHai LongYu Information Technology Co.Ltd
Tel:+86(0)21-6427 8367
Fax:+86(0)21-6427 1117
Email:Bray@longyu.org.cn

If you don't want to get the similar mail,please send your E-mail to the this mail address web@longyu.org.cn and notify "***********",thanks!

ScamOla Launched!

Today, I am launching ScamOla. You send in me your best scam emails and I'll put them up here (amongst my usual postings) as a warning to others who may be about to be duped.

We've all had them. They are all a pain. But, remember, some people are taken in by them - so help me put a stop to that.

I am particularly focusing on domain and trade mark type scams.

Another one will be along any second now...

SCAMOLA 1 - It must be summer - the domain scammers have appeared!

Like clockwork they appear. More regular and certain than a British summer. More convincing than the green shoots of economic recovery.

Of course, I am talking about the domain scammers. These are the people who trawl websites and use WHOIS registers to try to scam people into buying unnecessary domains at vastly inflated prices.

Today's scam comes from Glen Li at Beijing Anwins Network Service Co. I reproduce it below with identifying information redacted.

I cannot stand things like this. To set out to trick people into paying for unnecessary domains and other services is low. So I'm happy to let people know when these things appear so that they can be forewarned.

James


From: glen.li [mailto:glen.li@anwins.cn]
Sent: *******************
To: enquiries
Subject: ************* Domain name & Internet keyword Registration confirmation



August **, 2008

************

Domain name & Internet keyword

Dear Sir/Madam,

We are Beijing Anwins Network Service Co., Ltd which is the domain name register center in China. We received a formal application from a company who is applying to register “***************” as their domain name and Internet keyword on August **, 2008.Since after our investigation we found that this word has been in use by your company, and this may involve your company name or trade mark, so we inform you in no time. If you consider these domain names and internet keyword are important to you and it is necessary to protect them by registering them first, contact us soon. Thanks for your co-operation and support.

Kind Regards,

Glen li

TEL：+86-10-62961631-8051

FAX：+86-10-62968871

email: Glen.li@anwins.cn

Beijing Anwins Network Service Co., Ltd
website: www.anwins.com